Category Archives: Singularity

Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, the world was on the cusp of an energy crisis. As countries scramble to set ambitious carbon neutrality targets, it remains wholly unclear how those targets will be met, as eagerness to exit coal and other fossil fuels is far from matched by an equivalent capability to replace it with clean, cheap energy sources. In light of the geopolitical shift taking place around energy in the last month, with countries shunning Russias oil and gas but needing replacement sourcesand not wanting to go back to long-term reliance on coalthe debate around nuclear energy has reignited. Except this time, theres even more reason to be in favor of the ever-contentious power source than against it.

The biggest anti-nuclear arguments include risk of lethal accidents, increased access to materials that could be used to build nuclear weapons, and lack of a safe disposal method for nuclear waste. The latter could soon get some heavy pushback, though, as the worlds first permanent disposal facility for nuclear waste prepares to open in Finland.

The Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository is on an island called Olkiluoto on Finlands south-west coast, just over three hours drive from Helsinki. There were already two operating nuclear reactors on Olkiluoto, and after more than a decade of delays, a third finally launched test production at 0.1 gigawatts earlier this month, aiming to reach its full 1.6 GW capacity by July. Once that happens, nuclear power will account for over 40 percent of Finlands total electricity production, bumping it even higher from its existing spot on the list of top countries in the world for nuclear energy reliance.

Each statistic about the disposal facilitys development and how it will function is more mind-blowing than the last.

Heres the basic premise: spent fuel rods from nuclear reactors will be encased in layers of various materials before being lowered into tunnels 430 meters (1,411 feet, right around the height of the Empire State Building counting its spire) underground, where theyll safely decompose over the course of 100,000 yearsthe amount of time for which nuclear waste remains toxic.

Its all admittedly pretty difficult to wrap your head around.

The project has been in the works for over 25 years, ever since Posiva, the company spearheading it, started searching for an adequate site in Finland in the mid-1990s. Olkiluoto was chosen because of its position halfway between two geological fault lines (not that theres much probability of an earthquake occurring; geologists assert that the bedrock on which the region lies has been mostly stable for the past billion years), and because that bedrock is composed of a type of rock called gneiss thats nearly impossible for water to permeate.

This matters because, as Canadas Nuclear Waste Management Organization director of geoscience Sarah Hirschorn told Science, The only way for things to move from the repository out to the surface and to impact people is to be carried by water.

Besides the rock, there will be multiple other barriers between the buried reactor rods and the outside world (including any water that might find its way into the tunnels). Robots will seal the rods inside cast-iron canisters, which in turn will go into copper canisters. Machines will inject argon gas between the two canisters to provide an inert atmosphere, and the copper cask will be welded shut. 30 to 40 copper casks will go into one giant hole, which will be sealed with a clay called bentonite, then sealed again with concrete.

So it definitely seems like that stuff isnt going anywhere, at all, ever, for the rest of timewhich is exactly the goal.

However, one issue, addressed in a documentary about the projects ethical implications called Into Eternity, is how to ensure that distant future generations arent harmed by the waste. How to communicate its danger without knowing whether, in say 85,000 years, humans will still speak and read language the same way we do now? Black and yellow images of skulls and crossbones arent going to cut it either (plus, what would they be made of to ensure theyd last 100,000 years?).

While it seems unlikely future generations will be nosing around hundreds of meters underground, whos to say what kinds of unimaginable technologies will exist by then? 200 years ago, a fraction of the length of time were talking about here, the idea of now-commonplace technologies like smartphones was inconceivable; similarly, we cant even begin to imagine what humanity and civilization will look like in 500 times as long. In any case, how will our generation fulfill its moral obligation to keep future humans safe from our toxic trash?

Somewhat ironically, this is the same question being posed around climate change and carbon emissions (though 100,000 years is a totally different scale), the very phenomena that nuclear power could help alleviate. And by many estimates, nuclear will be necessary to alleviate our energy problems, though its a solution whose benefits will come with their own set of costs.

In his excellent piece for Science, Sedeer El-Showk emphasized the importance of Finlands political climate and culture for not only getting the Onkalo project off the ground, but seeing it through to completion. In Finland, there is a very high level of trust in science and in the authorities, Matti Kojo, a political science researcher at Tampere University in Finland, told El-Showk. If the national authority says the repository is safe, they dont need to worry about it. This is unfortunately a far cry from reality in the US and many other countries. In fact, a similar initiative in Nevada called Yucca Mountain has been mired in political controversy for 35 years.

Scientists, engineers, energy companies, and governments will grapple with the costs and benefits of nuclear power for decades to come, and despite growing urgency, it remains to be seen whether it will ultimately triumph as a sustainable energy source. In the meantime, kudos to Finland for being the first to take a big step forward. The Onkalo facility is currently under construction, and slated to start operating in 2024.

Image Credit: Posiva

Looking for ways to stay ahead of the pace of change? Rethink whats possible. Join a highly curated, exclusive cohort of 80 executives for Singularitys flagship Executive Program (EP), a five-day, fully immersive leadership transformation program that disrupts existing ways of thinking. Discover a new mindset, toolset and network of fellow futurists committed to finding solutions to the fast pace of change in the world. Click here to learn more and apply today!

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The World's First Deep Geological Nuclear Vault Will Store Radioactive Waste in Finland for 100000 Years - Singularity Hub

Geothermal energy has long been the forgotten member of the clean energy family, overshadowed by relatively cheap solar and wind power, despite its proven potential. But that may soon change, for an unexpected reason.

Geothermal technologies are on the verge of unlocking vast quantities of lithium from naturally-occurring hot brines beneath places like Californias Salton Sea, a two-hour drive from San Diego.

Lithium is essential for lithium-ion batteries, which power electric vehicles and energy storage. Demand for these batteries is quickly rising, but the US is currently heavily reliant on lithium imports from other countries; most of the nations lithium supply comes from Argentina, Chile, Russia, and China. The ability to recover critical minerals from geothermal brines in the US could have important implications for energy and mineral security, as well as global supply chains, workforce transitions, and geopolitics.

As a geologist who works with geothermal brines and an energy policy scholar, we believe this technology can bolster the nations critical minerals supply chain at a time when concerns about the supply chains security are rising.

Geothermal power plants use heat from the Earth to generate a constant supply of steam to run turbines that produce electricity. The plants operate by bringing up a complex saline solution located far underground, where it absorbs heat and is enriched with minerals such as lithium, manganese, zinc, potassium, and boron.

Geothermal brines are the concentrated liquid left over after heat and steam are extracted at a geothermal plant. In the Salton Sea plants, these brines contain high concentrations (about 30 percent) of dissolved solids.

If test projects now underway prove that battery-grade lithium can be extracted from these brines cost-effectively, 11 existing geothermal plants along the Salton Sea alone could have the potential to produce enough lithium metal to provide about 10 times the current US demand.

Three geothermal operators at the Salton Sea geothermal field are in various stages of designing, constructing, and testing pilot plants for direct lithium extraction from the hot brines.

At full production capacity, the 11 existing power plants near the Salton Sea, which currently generate about 432 megawatts of electricity, could also produce about 20,000 metric tons of lithium metal per year. The annual market value of this metal would be over $5 billion at current prices.

The Salton Trough, seen from a satellite with the Salton Sea in the middle, is a rift valley that extends from east of Los Angeles, in the upper left, to the Gulf of California, visible at the bottom right. The San Andreas fault system crosses here, where two tectonic plates meet. Image Credit: Jesse Allen/NASA Earth Observatory

Existing lithium supply chains are rife with uncertainties that put mineral security in question for the US.

Russias war in Ukraine and competition with China, as well as close ties between Russia and China, underscore the geopolitical implications of the mineral-intensive clean energy transformation.

China is currently the leader in lithium processing and actively procures lithium reserves from other major producers. Chinese state mining operators often own mines in other countries, which produce other vital clean energy minerals like cobalt and nickel.

There is currently one lithium production facility in the US. That facility, in Nevada, extracts saline liquid and concentrates the lithium by allowing the water to evaporate in large, shallow ponds. In contrast, the process for extracting lithium while producing geothermal energy returns the water and brines to the Earth. Adding another domestic source of lithium could improve energy and mineral security for the US and its allies.

Geothermal power today represents less than 0.5 percent of the utility-scale electricity generation in the US.

One reason it remains a stagnant energy technology in the US is the lack of strong policy support. Preliminary findings from a research study being conducted by one of us indicate that part of the problem is rooted in disagreements among older and newer geothermal companies themselves, including how they talk about geothermal energys benefits with policymakers, investors, the media, and the public.

Geothermal power has the ability to complement solar and wind energy as a baseload power sourceit is constant, unlike sunshine and windand to provide energy and mineral security. It could also offer a professional bridge for oil, gas, and coal employees to transition into the clean energy economy.

The industry could benefit from policies like risk mitigation funds to lessen drilling exploration costs, grant programs to demonstrate innovations, long-term power contracts, or tax incentives.

Adding the production of critical metals like lithium, manganese, and zinc from geothermal brines could provide geothermal electrical power operators a new competitive advantage and help get geothermal onto the policy agenda.

Trends might be moving in the right direction for geothermal energy producers.

In February, the California Public Utilities Commission adopted a new Preferred System Plan that encourages the state to develop 1,160 megawatts of new geothermal electricity. Thats on top of a 2021 decision to procure 1,000 megawatts from zero-emissions, renewable, firm generating resources with an 80 percent capacity factorwhich can only be met by geothermal technologies.

The California decisions were primarily meant to complement intermittent renewable energy, like solar and wind, and the retirement of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. They suggest that the era of geothermal as the forgotten renewable energy may be ending.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Image Credit: WikiImages / 1175 images

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How Geothermal Plants Could Unlock Vast Supplies of Lithium in the American West - Singularity Hub

Apple TV+ is set to add another masterfully crafted series to its list of highly acclaimed TV shows. Slow Horses is the streaming services upcoming offering, a spy thriller based on the novel of the same name by Mick Herron. The show is created by Will Smith (not that Will Smith), who previously worked on Veep. Here is a synopsis of the show, according to IMDb: Follows a team of British intelligence agents who serve in a dumping ground department of MI5 due to their career-ending mistakes. Led by their brilliant but irascible leader, the notorious Jackson Lamb. Want to know more about who will be portraying the characters in this much-anticipated series? Weve listed down every actor expected to grace the screen forSlow Horses.

Yes, the legendary, multi-Oscar-recognized actor Gary Oldman is appearing on the small screen, starring in Slow Horses as Jackson Lamb. Oldman has been in many highly acclaimed and blockbuster hits, and boy, where do we even start? He played James Gordon inThe Dark Knight Trilogy, Sirius Black in theHarry Potter franchise, and Beethoven in Immortal Beloved. For his role playing Winston Churchill inDarkest Hour,he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. He also received nominations forTinker Tailor Soldier Spy andMank.

Olivia Cooke also stars inSlow Horses as Sidonie Sid Baker. The young actress is most popularly known for her role inBates Motel as Emma Decody. Cooke also played roles inNaked Singularity, Little Fish, Pixie, Sound of Metal, Life Itself,andReady Player One.In an interview withCollider, Cooke talked about the show and working alongside the great Gary Oldman: I love the fact that were playing spies, but theyre spies that are in spy jail, at the moment. They have to sit there doing admin work. Theyre doing paperwork. To play out the mundanity of being an agent was really fun. It has this wicked sense of humor throughout. And seeing Gary Oldman at his best, doing what he does, was amazing.

Another veteran actor joining the cast ofSlow Horses is Jonathan Pryce, who will be playing the character of David Cartwright. One of the most versatile performers in Hollywood, Pryce has appeared in cheesy action flicks likeG.I. Joe to serious biographical dramas likeThe Two Popes, for which he received an Academy Award nomination. Everyones excited to see Pryce onSlow Horses, but theres another show hes scheduled to make waves. In Seasons 5 and 6 of The Crown,Jonathan Pryce will be replacing Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip. Jonathan Pryce will also be appearing in an upcoming film titledAll the Old Knives, starring Chris Pine and Thandie Newton.

Kristin Scott Thomas plays Diana Taverner inSlow Horses. The English actress is a five-time BAFTA Award and Olivier Award nominee. She has also been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in 1996s The English Patient.Some of the most recent movies shes appeared in includeRebecca, Final Set, Military Wives, andTomb Raider.

Jack Lowden will be playing River Cartwright inSlow Horses. The Scottish actor has appeared in movies likeBenediction, Kindred, Capone, Fighting With My Family, andMary Queen of Scots. On TV, hes worked inSmall Axe, The Long Song,andWar & Peace. In an interview withThe Scotsman, Lowden talked about a misconception about actors that he had when he was just starting out, saying: When I first started I thought in a sort of arrogant way that actors were fannies and spoilt and you just turn up and say something, but the longer I worked, and then getting a chance to produce and see the other side, they really are the magical bit. From humble beginnings, Lowden now finds himself working alongside actors like Oldman and Pryce.

Antonio Aakeel will be portraying Hassan Ahmed in Slow Horses.The actors most prominent work was as the lead actor in the 2018 comedy film Eaten By Lions. Aakeel has also appeared inTomb Raider andThree Girls.

Sam Hazeldine joinsSlow Horses as a character named Moe. A son of English acting royalty James Hazeldine, Sam Hazeldine has appeared in films likeThe War Below andThe Last Duel.On TV, hes made appearances inThe Witcher andTemple in a recurring role. Hazeldine has had main roles on TV prior toSlow Horses. He appeared in a lead role inThe Innocents as well as the sketch comedy showThe Kevin Bishop Show.

Rosalind Eleazar will be portraying the character of Louisa Guy inSlow Horses. A film, TV, and stage actress, Eleazar has done it all. She appeared inBreeders, Death in Paradise,andHarlots,as well as the moviesIm Not In Love andThe Personal History of David Copperfield.On stage, she portrayed Dido in15 Heroines and Yelena inUncle Vanya.

Actor Chris Reilly joinsSlow Horses as Nick Duffy. A constant presence on UK TV shows and movies, hes appeared inEastEnders andSilent Witness. His most recent film work is the 2014 movieAllies andThe Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.

British actor Dustin Demri-Burns is set to play Min Harper inSlow Horses. The actor has been inSick Note, Game Face, andTurn Up Charlie.

Christopher Chung will be portraying Roddy Ho inSlow Horses. An Australian actor of Chinese and Irish descent, he has played characters in projects likeNeighbours andWaterloo Road.In an enthusiastic Instagram post, Chung expressed his excitement overSlow Horses, writing: And were off to the races. Your first look at#SlowHorsescoming to@appletvplus on the 1st of April. Cant wait for you all to meet Ho.

Last on the list is Joey Ansah, who will be portraying Agent Pierce in the upcoming spy thriller. Ansah is a popular actor, director, and martial artist whose credits includeBourne Ultimatum, Street Fighter: Assassins Fist,andThe Old Guard.

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Meet The Cast Of "Slow Horses" - TVOvermind

The proliferation of deepfake technology is raising concerns that AI could start to warp our sense of shared reality. New research suggests AI-synthesized faces dont simply dupe us into thinking theyre real people, we actually trust them more than our fellow humans.

In 2018, Nvidia wowed the world with an AI that could churn out ultra-realistic photos of people that dont exist. Its researchers relied on a type of algorithm known as a generative adversarial network (GAN), which pits two neural networks against each other, one trying to spot fakes and the other trying to generate more convincing ones. Given enough time, GANS can generate remarkably good counterfeits.

Since then, capabilities have improved considerably, with some worrying implications: enabling scammers to trick people, making it possible to splice people into porn movies without their consent, and undermining trust in online media. While its possible to use AI itself to spot deepfakes, tech companies failures to effectively moderate much less complicated material suggests this wont be a silver bullet.

That means the more pertinent question is whether humans can spot the difference, and more importantly how they relate to deepfakes. The results from a new study in PNAS are not promisingresearchers found that peoples ability to detect fakes was no better than a random guess, and they actually rated the made-up faces as more trustworthy than the real ones.

Our evaluation of the photorealism of AI-synthesized faces indicates that synthesis engines have passed through the uncanny valley and are capable of creating faces that are indistinguishableand more trustworthythan real faces, the authors wrote.

To test reactions to fake faces, the researchers used an updated version of Nvidias GAN to generate 400 of them, with an equal gender split and 100 faces each from four ethnic groups: Black, Caucasian, East Asian, and South Asian. They matched each of these with real faces pulled from the database that was originally used to train the GAN, which had been judged to be similar by a different neural network.

They then recruited 315 participants from the Amazon Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing platform. Each person was asked to judge 128 faces from the combined dataset and decide if they were fake or not. They achieved an accuracy rate of just 48 percent, actually worse than the 50 percent you should get from a random guess.

Deepfakes often have characteristic defects and glitches that can help people single them out. So the researchers carried out a second experiment with another 219 participants where they gave them some basic training in what to look out for before getting them to judge the same number of faces. Their performance improved only slightly, to 59 percent.

In a final experiment, the team decided to see if more immediate gut reactions to faces might give people better clues. They decided to see whether trustworthinesssomething we typically decide in a split second based on hard-to-pin-down featuresmight help people make better calls. But when they got another 223 participants to rate the trustworthiness of 128 faces, they found people actually rated the fake ones 8 percent more trustworthy, a small but statistically significant difference.

Given the nefarious uses deepfakes can be put to, that is a worrying finding. The researchers suggest that part of the reason why the fake faces are rated more highly is because they tend to look more like average faces, which previous research has found people tend to trust more. This was born out by looking at the four most untrustworthy faces, which were all real, and the three most trustworthy, which were all fake.

The researchers say their findings suggest that those developing the underlying technology behind deepfakes need to think hard about what theyre doing. An important first step is to ask themselves whether the benefits of the technology outweigh its risks. The industry should also consider building in safeguards, which could include things like getting deepfake generators to add watermarks to their output.

Because it is the democratization of access to this powerful technology that poses the most significant threat, we also encourage reconsideration of the often laissez-faire approach to the public and unrestricted releasing of code for anyone to incorporate into any application, the authors wrote.

Unfortunately though, it might be too late for that. Publicly-available models are already capable of producing highly convincing deepfakes, and it seems unlikely that well be able to put the genie back in the bottle.

Image Credit: geralt / 23929 images

Looking for ways to stay ahead of the pace of change? Rethink whats possible. Join a highly curated, exclusive cohort of 80 executives for Singularitys flagship Executive Program (EP), a five-day, fully immersive leadership transformation program that disrupts existing ways of thinking. Discover a new mindset, toolset and network of fellow futurists committed to finding solutions to the fast pace of change in the world. Click here to learn more and apply today!

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People Trust Deepfake Faces Generated by AI More Than Real Ones, Study Finds - Singularity Hub

The Covid-19 pandemic brought into sharp focus how unavoidably global the world economy has become. Production freezes on one side of the globe wreaked havoc on the other, and supply chains havent yet recovered. Some countries are looking to bring production of crucial goods back onto domestic soil, but that doesnt mean the movement of products across international borders will stop, nor even slow.

The UNs International Maritime Organization estimates that over 90 percent of this movement takes place on ships; maritime transport, it says, is by far the most cost-effective way to move en masse goods and raw materials around the world. Ships may be cheaper than planes (or, if one startup has its way, autonomous cargo drones), but theyre far slower.

They also produce a lot of pollution. The fuel ships use contains more sulfur than that used in cars, meaning fewer ships do a lot more environmental damage. A Japanese public-interest group called the Nippon Foundation has set out to remedy this; the group is backing Japans development of autonomous ships, aiming for these to make up half of the countrys local fleet by 2040.

On top of the environmental concerns, Japan has an added motivation for this push towards automationits aging population and concurrent low birth rates mean its workforce is rapidly shrinking, and the implications for the countrys economy arent good.

Thus it behooves the Japanese to automate as many job functions as they can (and the rest of the world likely wont be far behind, though they wont have quite the same impetus). According to the Nippon Foundation, more than half of Japanese ship crew members are over the age of 50.

In partnership with Misui OSK Lines Ltd., the foundation recently completed two tests of autonomous ships. The first was a 313-foot container ship called the Mikage, which sailed 161 nautical miles from Tsuruga Port, north of Kyoto, to Sakai Port near Osaka. Upon reaching its destination port the ship was even able to steer itself into its designated bay, with drones dropping its mooring line.

The Mikage wasnt purpose-built to be autonomous; the seven-year-old ship was retrofitted with a system of sensors, cameras, and satellite navigation. It followed a carefully-planned route while a control center on land monitored relevant wind, current, and weather data, as well as details on nearby ships and potential obstacles.

Similar to how its easier for self-driving cars to operate autonomously on highways than in unpredictable urban settings, the Mikage didnt have too hard of a time navigating itself through open waters. The ships biggest challenge was getting itself in and out of ports; for this, its navigation software calculated and visually displayed the distances and angles between the pier and the ships hull.

The foundation tested a second crewless ship this month. The Suzaku, which was built in 2019 and recently retrofitted to be autonomous, sailed from Tokyo Bay to Ise Bay.

Japan isnt the first nation to start testing autonomous ships (though it is the only one with the ambitious goal of 50 percent autonomy); in 2018 Norway started trials of a small electric container ship called the Yara Birkeland, which is now undergoing additional testing before it can be certified for commercial operations. In 2018 Rolls Royce announced a partnership with Intel to build autonomous ships, launching a system called Intelligent Awareness that helps ships navigate without human help.

Now that multiple companies and countries are developing autonomous shipping technology, the next step is to get the ball rolling on regulations for the seafaring vessels, as they wont be able to leave coastal waters until theres an internationally agreed-upon set of rules for their operation.

Image Credit: PublicDomainPictures / 17902 images

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Japan Wants to Make Half Its Cargo Ships Autonomous by 2040 - Singularity Hub

How long does it take to beat Horizon Forbidden West? Aloys second adventure is a much more expansive outing than her 2017 debut title, and Guerrillas latest game is packed with plenty to see and do. The main story alone will take you quite some time to experience from start to finish, and its hard not to get distracted with all the side content that the Forbidden West has to offer. Horizon Forbidden West is a massive game, but how long will it take you to complete?

The main story of Horizon Forbidden West can be completed in roughly 20-25 hours. That estimate is for players who ignore all of the games side content and prioritize Aloys main journey through the Forbidden West. Given the games size, however, most people will get wrapped up in at least a few side quests.

If you play the game normally, completing a handful of side quests and optional activities like Cauldrons, Rebel Camps, and Tallnecks, then your playtime can reach 40 hours or longer depending on how far you deviate from the main path. If you want to complete every side activity, upgrade all of your gear, and get the platinum trophy, then youre looking at an estimated 80 hours or more with Horizon Forbidden West.

To recap, heres how long it will take to finish Horizon Forbidden West.

There are 17 main story missions in Horizon Forbidden West and each of them is listed below. Beware that the list below may contain minor spoilers.

The final main story quest, Singularity, is a level 35 mission. Thats not the maximum level in Horizon Forbidden West, but its still up there. Youll likely have to do at least a few side activities in order to reach an appropriate level to finish the main story. Thankfully, there is no shortage of optional activities in Horizon Forbidden West, and most people will end up engaging in at least a few side quests on their journey anyway.

Horizon Forbidden Westis available now on PS4 and PS5.

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How Long is Horizon Forbidden West: Every Main Quest in the Game - Attack of the Fanboy

The Peruvian season is about to end and the South African origin is now in full swing. However, with the logistics problems the whole world is faced with, the increase in the price of the products and with the grape production in evolution, this 2021-2022 season is atypical, to say the least.

Peruvian seasonFor the Peruvian origin, the campaign took place in two times. The excellent pre-campaign before Christmas was followed by a turning point around the 20th of January, when significant volumes arrived from Ica. Then, the market started to lose some value, but remained stable in terms of consumption, with high prices. As for the quality, there has been no major problem. Overall, the quality was good, explains Timothe Levesque, purchasing manager South Africa in charge of developing new families of products.

South Africa: loading delays extended from 10 to 18 daysThe company started receiving the first shipments from South Africa at the beginning of January. This season is really atypical, because of all the problems in logistics linked to the availability of containers and ship rotation. Freight costs have exploded. Although the increase in value was less significant for South Africa than for Latin America, it still represents a real handicap. From June, freight costs should increase even more and become similar to those of South America. There are delays in the loading time, which creates a major problem because it affects the shelf-life of the products. The current delays for loading a container can go from 10 to 18 days more than usual. This means that two weeks are wasted for the distribution of the fruit, which creates a lot of uncertainty regarding the quality. This year, South Africa is expected to have a lot of volumes, but now nothing is certain anymore.

Grape prices have increased by 30%In addition to the increase in freight costs, importers must face the higher prices for packaging and other additional costs. We are forced to pass these costs onto the price of our products. Grape prices have increased by nearly 30% compared to a traditional year so, inevitably, consumption is also impacted.

New expensive but popular varietiesStrangely, despite the significant increase in the price of grapes, some varieties are not affected by the decline in consumption. In South Africa, many new varieties have been planted in recent years and they have now entered production. It is the case of some club varieties that are sold on the free market at extremely high prices, with a very dynamic consumption. This is also the singularity of this season, we have a multi-speed market.

Total Produce Indigo has a wide range of grapes, from so-called volume varieties to newer varieties, and for all three colors. We sell mainly seedless grapes. We also try to follow the new club varieties that are emerging, while keeping varieties of the Red Globe type. We want to satisfy all our clients, knowing that the more niche products we offer, the more positive the consumption tends to be.

The company also recently finalized its acquisition of the company Dole. Click here for more information.

For more information:Timothe LevesqueTotal Produce IndigoPhone: +33 7 60 15 69 76t.levesque@indigo-fruit.com

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The singularity of this grape season: a multi-speed market - FreshPlaza.com

Coffee and donuts, has there even been such a perfect pair? The sweet from the donut balancing harmoniously with the bitter from the coffee, each bite demanding to be offset by a drink and vice versa. And as it seems to go nowadays with two great tastes that go great together, they have been smashed together into one product. This latest corporeal portmanteau comes via Hostesss new Boost Jumbo Donettes, a caffeinated confection soon to be hitting the shelves.

And lets just get this out of the way right at the top: isnt a Jumbo Donette simply just a donut? Im not mathematician, but a Big Small Donut seems like a very reducible fraction.

Nonetheless, Hostessmakers of non-oxymoronic treats like the Twinkie, Ding Dong, HoHo, and Snowballhave decided that any time spent drinking coffee is time not spent eating sugar snacks and have set out to remedy that with their latest release. Per Penn Live, each 2.5oz donut will contain 50-70mg caffeine, slightly less than a cup of coffee, with the caffeine in the 3x Donette will come from coffee bean extract.

For the initial launch the Boost Jumbo Donette will come in two flavors similar to coffee shop patrons: Chocolate Mocha and Caramel Macchiato. Chocolate Mocha is said to combine the decadent flavors of chocolate and espresso, while the Caramel Macchiato offers that of caramel and espresso flavor.

Retailing at $2.49 per individual package, the Boost Jumbo Donettes are set to roll out to convenience stores across the nation later this month. A quick search on the Hostess site found that pretty much every 7-11 nearby has a Boost just for me.

So while a coffee donut can never truly replace the magic that is coffee with a donut, in a pinch, the caffeinated coffee donut may be better than a bad version of either its components.

Zac Cadwaladeris the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas.Read more Zac Cadwaladeron Sprudge.

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Caffeinated Donuts Bring About The Breakfast Singularity - Sprudge

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

DeepMind Has Trained an AI to Control Nuclear FusionAmit Katwala | WiredDeepMinds AI was able to autonomously figure out how to create these [plasma] shapes by manipulating the magnetic coils in the right wayboth in the simulation and when the scientists ran the same experiments for real inside the TCV tokamak to validate the simulation. It represents a significant step, says Fasoli, one that could influence the design of future tokamaks or even speed up the path to viable fusion reactors.

The Quest to Make a Digital Replica of Your BrainGrace Browne | WiredDigital twins are already used in manufacturing, industry, and aerospace. Now an [EU-funded] project called Neurotwin wants to make virtual copies of brains. The Neurotwin team is hoping the model can be used to predict the effects of stimulation for the treatment of neurological disorders, including epilepsy and Alzheimers disease.

Listen to an AI Voice Actor Try and Flirt With YouJames Vincent | The VergeSonantic, an AI voice startup, says its made a minor breakthrough in its development of audio deepfakes, creating a synthetic voice that can express subtleties like teasing and flirtation. The company says the key to its advance is the incorporation ofnon-speech sounds into its audio; training its AI models to recreate those small intakes of breathtiny scoffs and half-hidden chucklesthat give real speech its stamp of biological authenticity.

Scientists Say Theyve Found a Way to Create Universal Donor LungsEd Cara | GizmodoResearchers in Canada say theyve found a way to help people who otherwise would be left languishing on the organ transplant list. In new research this week, they detail converting lungs from people with type A blood into lungs that could be donated to anyone, without heavily damaging them or causing acute rejection. Assuming the teams work is further validated and tested to be safe, it may someday expand the pool of universal donor lungs.

This Super-Realistic Virtual World Is a Driving School for AIWill Douglas Heaven | MIT Technology ReviewWaabi World takes the use of simulation to another level. The world itself is generated and controlled by AI, which acts as both driving instructor and stage manageridentifying the AI drivers weaknesses and then rearranging the virtual environment to test them. Waabi World teaches multiple AI drivers different abilities at the same time before combining them into a single skill set. It all happens nonstop and without human input, says Urtasun.

Clearview AI Aims to Put Almost Every Human in Facial Recognition DatabaseJon Brodkin | Ars TechnicaiClearview AI is telling investors it is on track to have 100 billion facial photos in its database within a year, enough to ensure almost everyone in the world will be identifiable, according to a financial presentation from December obtained by The Washington Post, the Post reported today. The December presentation was part of an effort to obtain new funding from investors, so 100 billion facial images is more of a goal than a firm plan. However, the presentation said that Clearview has already racked up 10 billion images and is adding 1.5 billion images a month, the Post wrote.

Worlds Smallest 0.56-Micron Pixel Heralds the End of Camera BumpsAndy Zahn | Digital TrendsThese pixels are so small that they are now dwarfed by the wavelength of red light, breaking a previously held notion that this wavelengths size was a lower limit at which a pixel could be created. Omnivision used proprietary technology that they have developed to embed the photodiode deeper into silicon, which enabled them to develop the worlds smallest pixel.

Is Reddit a Better Search Engine Than Google?Mark Sullivan | Fast CompanyA new story anticipating the decline and fall of Google Search comes out about every month, but a blog post Tuesday, called Google Search Is Dying by the blogger DKB was different. The blog shot up to the top of Hacker News on Tuesday, and is already the 11th most upvoted post on Hacker News of all time, with more than 1,500 comments. The core argument is that many people have become so disappointed inor distrustful ofgood old Google search results that they now append the term reddit to the end of their queries.

Image Credit: Fredrik Solli Wandem / Unsplash

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This Week's Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through February 19) - Singularity Hub

These Industrials stocks are trading higher:

-Metal Arts Ord Shs (MTRT) stock is trading at $7.71, a gain of $1.71, or 28.33%, on high volume. Metal Arts CO Inc gets a Sentiment Score of Bullish from InvestorsObserver. -Singularity Future Technology Ltd (SGLY) stock is trading at $7.22, an increase of $1.07, or 17.32%, on high volume. Singularity Future Technology Lt gets a Sentiment Score of Neutral from InvestorsObserver. Singularity Future Technology Lt next reports earnings on February18. -Generac Holdings Inc. (GNRC) stock is trading at $314.61, a rise of $38.15, or 13.8%, on high volume. Generac Holdings Inc gets a Sentiment Score of Very Bearish from InvestorsObserver and receives an average analyst recommendation of Strong Buy with a price target of $470.41. -SFL Corporation Ltd (SFL) stock is trading at $9.62, a gain of $0.88, or 10.31%, on high volume. Ship Finance International gets a Sentiment Score of Bullish from InvestorsObserver and receives an average analyst recommendation of Strong Buy with a price target of $9.33.

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Industrials Stocks on the Move Wednesday: MTRT, SGLY, GNRC, SFL, EVLV, WIRE, SIDU, MNTS - InvestorsObserver